Sandwich
by Salazarfalcon
Summary: Gold couldn't help but wonder if this was how someone felt when approached by a rare, wild animal that could rip you to shreds in a heartbeat but chose instead to settle down to snuggle. He also hated the universe for naming that wild animal Silver.


Disclaimer: I most definitely do not own Pokémon.

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><p>Sandwich<p>

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><p>It wasn't that Gold didn't want Silver to be cuddly; on the contrary, he did an internal (and sometimes external) victory dance whenever the other boy so much as gave him a look that wasn't all sharp edges and pointy glares. Silver always hated it when he was so obviously pleased with something so small, though they both ignored the fact that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't such a small thing at all. Well, Silver ignored it. Gold just tended to make an extra effort from the encouragement.<p>

This, however, was just a little, tiny bit, teensy bit troubling.

Gold stared up at the canopy of trees above them and did his best to not move, despite the red hair tickling his nose and the intense desire to wrap his arms around Silver and pull him close. Unfortunately, that would undoubtedly wake him up and Gold didn't get to touch him half as much as he liked anyway (though if he got his way he'd never stop, so maybe it was better this way) and waking him up with a "Hi, you just kind of rolled over here, so now I'm going to snuggle you without your consent" probably wouldn't go over well.

Silently, Gold cursed whatever sorry excuses for gods were watching this and laughing. He hoped that they at least were getting a kick out of it, because he did NOT appreciate the joke. Typhlosion was also apparently out to get him as well; the large fire type was cuddled up on his other side, effectively making Gold the middle of some deranged bedtime sandwich. Idly, it crossed his mind that since Silver was taller than him, so wouldn't that make him the inside spoon as well?

His thoughts derailed abruptly when Silver began to nuzzle into his neck, breath tickling lightly and quite possibly setting Gold on the path to insanity as if he wasn't already halfway down it.

If the other boy was awake, he probably wouldn't have hesitated to reach out and draw him closer, taking the protests and grumbles and essentially nailing in the fact that he would love and tolerate the daylights out of him until he gave up with the proverbial hammer of tenacity and selective obliviousness, but somehow, he just couldn't take the opportunity. Something must have really, really hated him.

Gold squirmed when a clawed paw dug into his shoulder, pushing him closer to the sleeping redhead.

"Stoppit!" Gold hissed under his breath, giving into the temptation to wrench his arm back and elbow Typhlosion in…well, wherever he happened to hit. The pokémon merely snuffled in his sleep, unperturbed. Silver meanwhile was denied that happy pleasure and at the slight jostling, his metallic eyes snapped open immediately, groggy and disoriented for a split second before giving way to confusion, before settling on a general aggravation.

"What the hell are you doing?" he snapped, shuffling away the best he could while tangled up in his sleeping bag like some overgrown glow worm. Even in the sparse light of the moon, Gold could see that color had risen in his cheeks and he was practically radiating heat from the sheer magnitude of his embarrassment. The other trainer might have found it cute if he wasn't running over in his head any and all ways to avoid being killed. Defensive, Gold raised both hands.

"Don't blame me, you rolled over here!" he retorted, "What was I supposed to do, roll you back where you came from?"

Silver shot him a glance that said quite plainly, _Yes, you should have_ but instead of speaking made an incomprehensible grumbling noise that said as much.

"Besides," Gold continued, "Blame HIM." He pointed to the still-sleeping pokémon behind him.

"Well, maybe if you'd kept him in his ball like a normal human being—"

"I get it, man. You're embarrassed, but don't be a jerk to me 'cause you're mad at yourself, and don't take it out on my pokémon."

"You told me to blame him…" Silver implicated snidely with a raised brow, finding the zipper on the side of his bag and unzipping himself to sit up. Gold glared and made a rude hand gesture.

"Didn't mean I wanted you to actually blame him…" he muttered, voice resentful, before he rolled his eyes and sighed despairingly. "I sort of wish you'd stayed asleep, you're more comfy that way."

"Well, excuse me for not being comfy enough while I'm awake," Silver growled, crossing his legs, the furrow between his eyebrows deepening with every word. Gold blinked, tilting his head, before a proverbial light bulb went off over his head.

"Wait, wait, wait, you do realize that that sounds like you're _mad_ that I said you weren't comfy. Which means that you _want_ to be comfy, otherwise you wouldn't be so insulted! All you had to do was ask and I'd come and snuggle the crankiness out of you in a heartbeat, you've just got a hell of a right hook."

"_I meant no such thing at all,_" the redhead said lowly, emphasizing every word, "You are twisting my words. …what the hell are you doing?" he asked suddenly, vaguely confused when Gold beamed at him, matching his scooching away by shuffling closer and opening his arms widely. Jazz hands immediately followed, and Silver did what he did when he was confused; he glared. "What?"

"You're pretty stupid, but you can't possibly be _that_ stupid," Gold goaded, that infuriating smile still pasted on his face, "I'm not going to stop wiggling at you until you come over here and give me a hug."

Dead silence.

"You'll be waiting for a while, then," Silver finally said, making up his mind and dragging his bag back over to where he began, smoothing it out meticulously and making to slide into it. He froze when the briefly crestfallen look on his companion's face faded and was replaced by something even more ominous: a stubborn frown.

"Come on," he wheedled.

"No," Silver replied, "It's late, go to sleep."

"Like hell!"

And with that, Gold stood and stomped all the way over to close the distance between them, flinging his arms around Silver and squeezing firmly, not just because he desperately wanted to hold him properly, but because Silver was notoriously adept with his elbows, fists, and any parts of himself that he could use to incapacitate and get away.

"Calm down, I'm not going to hurt you, you know."

"Irrelevant, let me go," the taller boy snapped, twisting in an attempt to get his arms free.

"No. _You_ have gotten at least three or four hours of sleep tonight, I've gotten none and it's all your fault and I'll be damned if you're not going to miss some too if you won't at least give me a freaking hug because you're weird and stingy and completely unfair." Gold had meant to come off as firm and intimidating, but it didn't come out quite so when he was lecturing into the nape of Silver's neck. Silver himself had frozen, sitting stock-still and tense, as if Gold was a wild pokémon that could rip his throat out at any second. Ironic, really, since most anyone asked would definitely say that Silver was more the throat-ripping type.

"Please let go," he said softly, voice so low and quiet that Gold couldn't bring himself to disobey. He relaxed his grip and allowed Silver to extract himself, watching morosely as the redhead finished straightening his bag and pillow. Silver was chewing on his lower lip, looking almost torn, which was weird in itself. Carefully, he slid himself into his bag but strangely left the side open.

If Gold had been asked only thirty seconds earlier if he thought that Silver could look much more uncomfortable, he would have said no.

He also would have been proven wrong.

And was his face just slightly brighter than it had been thirty seconds ago, too?

Staring intently at anything that wasn't Gold, Silver brought out a hand and patted the space next to him.

"Well… c-c-come here, then."

Gold didn't even care that he was essentially twirling and flailing like a little girl the entire five steps, hoisting his bedroll over his shoulder and unceremoniously dumping it next to Silver's. Seeing the redhead's face scrunch up unhappily at the sight of dust clouds being blown into his blankets from the motion, Gold made an extra effort to smooth it out and bring it close enough to not leave space between them, before dive bombing into the covers, immediately scooting close and wrapping his arms around Silver's thin waist, squeezing briefly before relaxing his grip enough to keep the other boy from feeling trapped. He was insistent, yes, but not stupid and nowhere near as inconsiderate as he used to be and knew that Silver even giving the okay for this was difficult for him.

He didn't show it on his face, but every move he made reeked of nervousness and anxiety.

"Calm down, calm down," Gold crooned, reaching up to stroke his hair, running long, silky red strands through his fingers.

"Who do you think you're telling to be calm? I'm perfectly calm."

_Uh-huh, and that's why you look like you're about to jump out of your skin._ At times like this, it was better to keep comments like that to himself, Gold knew. They might have been true, but also would have spelled out an instant rejection of this entire thing. Besides, if he wanted Silver to be less nervous, the last thing he ought to be doing was pointing out what he most wanted ignored.

That, and it was kind of adorable to watch him try and deny the whole business.

"Yes, yes," Gold murmured, forcing himself to remain still even though Silver continued to fidget. And fidget. And fidget.

Finally though, Silver let out a deep breath and Gold felt the tension drain out of him as though something inside of him had pulled a plug somewhere, and tentative hands came up to nestle in Gold's collar, twining hesitantly around his shoulders as if he didn't know where to put them. Gold smiled and cuddled closer, burying his nose in Silver's shoulder and breathing deeply, feeling ridiculously calm and luckier than he could ever remember being.

His blinks began to slow until he didn't bother anymore, closing his eyes and slipping off into sleep, breathing and even.

His last thought of the night was that he hoped that Silver got a taste of what he'd suffered through for the last few hours, tense and terrified of waking the person next to him, and he couldn't imagine Silver relaxing enough or feeling safe enough to actually sleep curled up with him like this.

He'd be wrong about that, too.

For the first time, Gold would wake up first to the morning sunshine in his face shining through the forest canopy and birds going about their business. Something would feel off and he'd glance around, before freezing in shock.

There'd be Silver, sleeping deeply as if he hadn't in years.

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><p>Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this, please feel free to leave comments or feedback in a review. I read every single one of them and will usually reply via private message or answer any questions.<p> 


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